Software Development

Public sector apps face widespread security challenges, report reveals

A new study found alarming security vulnerabilities across the vast majority of public applications over the last year.

  • By Chris Riotta

White House preps security controls for commercial software acquisition

The administration is attempting to leverage the procurement powers of the federal government to bolster software cybersecurity for the first time.

  • By Chris Riotta

All software is guilty until proven innocent

COMMENTARY | Agencies must embrace "shifting left," an approach that takes securing software in mind at the beginning of the development lifecycle.

  • By Chris Wysopal

Accounting for software in weapons systems

The Defense Department is still trying to figure out the best way to buy software and track that spending. But could the answer be in separating out those costs from the hardware required in major acquisitions?

  • By Lauren C. Williams

DIU director: Look beyond reform to keep the technological edge

Mike Brown, the director of the Defense Innovation Unit, said the acquisition reform is needed for the requirements, budgeting processes.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

VA seeks full 2022 funding for health record project, despite six-month pause

House appropriators are concerned that the Department of Veterans Affairs is seeking to fully fund its program to switch from its homegrown Vista system to Cerner's commercial electronic health record in 2022, despite having unspent funds from fiscal year 2021.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

A 60-year-old IRS IT system won't finish modernizing until 2030

The Internal Revenue Service's plan to modernize its key source for individual tax data has seen multiple cost and schedule changes since it started in 2009.

  • By Natalie Alms

DOD could get new software, sustainment tech oversight positions

Heidi Shyu , undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, wants to add new oversight roles for software and sustainment efforts.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

Nominee to lead USAF acquisition names software, IT as top priorities

Improving how the service acquires software and IT systems, while making DevSecOps the norm ranks among the top priorities for Andrew Hunter, the White House nominee to be assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

Keeping up with software cadence at the Air Force Test Center

Maj. Gen. Evan Dertien, commander of the Air Force Test Center, said the organization wants rapid software update capabilities for the USAF fleet, but that approach won't work in every use case.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

Air Force secretary mulls space acquisitions nominees

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said candidate interviews are underway for the space acquisition system secretary position and he expects to make a recommendation to the defense secretary and White House soon.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

Zero trust, EMS top Air Force cyber priorities

Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, the commander of the 16th Air Force, said implementing zero trust principles was "foundational" to improve data use and mitigate vulnerabilities from the defense industry supply chain.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

What makes hackathons work

Steve Kelman share recent research on how successful hackathon teams turn out functioning products.

  • By Steve Kelman

Air Force chief software officer to resign

The Air Force's first chief software officer, Nicolas Chaillan, will step down from his role in October, citing lack of funding and being "unempowered to fix basic IT issues."

  • By Lauren C. Williams
Featured eBooks

How a software bill of materials can help solve our supply chain woes

As the software equivalent of a list of ingredients seen on food labels, an SBOM would reveal the provenance of direct and indirect dependencies contained in a particular piece of software.

  • By Matt Howard

Navy looks to build cyber resilience beyond RMF

The Navy wants to fortify its cyber resilience to keep pace with rapid software development needs, but changing workforce habits has to come first.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

State Department expands push to the cloud

The State Department wants to go all in on the cloud, starting with a new multiplatform toolset to add flexibility and innovation to IT services.

  • By Chris Riotta

White House orders compliance with 'critical software' protection measures

The Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to comply with software supply chain security measures as set out in the May cybersecurity executive order.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

CISA debuts vulnerability disclosure platform

Federal civilian agencies can tap a bug reporting system fielded as a shared service by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to gather information on potential website and software vulnerabilities.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

Globally connected data can safeguard the defense industrial and technology base

Data can play a critical role in planning and ultimately protecting the nation's valuable talent, resources and supplies.

  • By Amber Jaycocks

Why VA's electronic health record mega-project is failing

The agency's former top technology official explains how management problems, reliance on outmoded development methodology and lack of customer buy-in are combining to sink (for now) a critical modernization project at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

  • By Roger Baker